The pace at which the self-publishing industry has been advancing has been difficult to keep up with. However, it is safe to predict the changes we expect considering what has been happening in the not-so-distant past. Here are some of the developments in the self-publishing industry that should continue shaping the industry.

Ingram Spark finally comes up to compete with Createspace by Amazon

Ingram Spark is an eBook and print-on-demand distribution service that is designed for self-publishers. Ingram Content Group used to have another tool for publishers called Lightning Source but it was a bit dated hence the major upgrade. The new tool is poised to give Amazon’s Createspace a run for its money. It features unparalleled user-friendliness with a single dashboard to help users to manage both print and eBook distribution.

EBook subscription services will increase

Scribd was one of the first companies to launch an eBook subscription service. For $8.95 per month, their users get unlimited access to all the books in the subscription program. Authors whose books are enrolled in this program also get higher royalties. Smashwords struck a deal with Scribd to add more than 200,000 eBooks by indie authors to the subscription service started by Scribd.

The eBooks subscription model encourages people to read books from unknown authors. It is therefore a great way to promote book discovery. More companies are expected to adopt such models because they can help them to increase customer retention and loyalty.

Interior book designs to become dirt cheap

This is a development that has professional book designers furious because they will no longer have monopoly over book design. Joel Friedlander, renowned book designer, created a partnership with Tracy R. Atkins, who is a tech aficionado, to design book templates to be distributed in Microsoft Word. These templates look just as though they were developed in Adobe InDesign. Now instead of forking out between $1,000 and $4,000 for book designs, authors can simply apply templates for their books in Microsoft Word. What’s more, the templates cost less than $40. Now authors can use these templates on their books, create PDFs and upload them to CreateSpace, BookBaby, Lightning Source, Spark, and Lulu or to any printing company. They can also apply eBook templates to upload their books to iBooks, Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords, etc.

Vook finally gets into POD distribution

Vook used to provide short-run printing only but they have now added print-on-demand distribution to their services. They are now providing all sorts of publishing services under one roof for indie authors who need hand-holding when developing their print and eBooks. This company can also design and edit books for their clients. Vook entered into a partnership with Bowker where authors get discounted services from Vook when they buy their ISBNs from Bowker.

Bowker embraces Web 2.0

Bowker has a huge database of books in print but their interface is cumbersome to use. Traditional publishers used to overlook this cumbersome site but the same cannot be said for self-publishers. Bowker has gradually made its website more user-friendly since they started selling ISBNs to self-publishers.